VA clarifies flag-folding memo

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2007 at 9:25 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Veterans Affairs Department moved yesterday to clarify a directive limiting the use of a religious recitation at flag-folding ceremonies after the ruling sparked an uproar among some veterans and House GOP members.

WASHINGTON -- The Veterans Affairs Department moved yesterday to clarify a directive limiting the use of a religious recitation at flag-folding ceremonies after the ruling sparked an uproar among some veterans and House GOP members.

In a memo last month to the agency's 125 cemeteries, a senior VA official said they should not distribute or post nongovernment handouts on "The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag."

The memo said the handout and its religious references shouldn't be used as a script at committal services unless the next of kin requests it.

House members introduced a resolution yesterday condemning a policy that would ban the recitations entirely, which some members thought the directive was trying to do, and dozens of lawmakers wrote to the VA demanding that the directive be rescinded.

"The VA is being manipulated by out-of-control secularists," said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.

The VA said the recital is not part of the official Defense Department interment ceremony and should be read only on request from a family member, said VA spokeswoman Lisette Mondello.

At issue is the "13-fold recital" sometimes read by an honor guard as an American flag is folded at a veteran's graveside. At each fold of the flag, concepts including life, country and heart are invoked, as well as God. There are separate references to the Jewish God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to the Christian trinity.

It was the 11th fold, which when honoring Jewish veterans makes a reference to the God of Abraham, that provoked a complaint this summer by someone at a ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery in southern California, Mondello said.

The complaint focused not on the content but on an error in the text used by cemetery volunteers which identified Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as gods, Mondello said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.